Read Any Good Books Lately?

[newspaperguy]

I mean, any good - non photography - books?

I'm just finishing Michael Houellebecq's THE MAP AND THE

TERRITORY. (Translated from the French... not the original.)

The novel, which won the Prix Gonocourt for 2011 centers

around a photographer/cum artist, both subjects the author

seems familiar with. Anyway, a good read if you can find a

copy at your local library.

(Roger Hicks can probably pick up a signed original. 😉 )

Rick

 

[jippiejee]

Always loved Michael Houellebecq's books. Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island were some of my favourites reads. Thnx for this tip. In three weeks I leave for a short trip and this will come with me then for all those hours on planes and airports.

 

[Teuthida]

Taylor Branch's 3 MLK/Civil rights trilogy. Every American should read it.

 

[porktaco]

barbara tuchman's bio of joseph stilwell. she's a good historian and a great storyteller

 

[Richard G]

Thanks for the recommendation Rick. I saw this in the bookshop yesterday, and wasn't going to read it as I was uncertain about the previous recommendation I had had of it. Not too far off photography is Gunther Grass's 'The Box' which I am also going to read.

 

[Peter_wrote:]

i found Elementary Particles a bit overrated, but i really liked Platform. and i like his poems too.
The Possibility of an Island and The Map and the Territory are on my to read list.

my last good reads were "Jakob von Gunten" from robert walser. dont know about translations. if someone likes kafka, he may like that too.

and Mr. Thundermug from Cornelius Medvei. a nice, easy to read short novel about a well educated talking baboon and his struggling with human society and bureaucrats.

 

[paulfish4570]

the hunger games trilogy.
yeah, it's for teens/young adults. but i tell ya, it is a rollicking, dismal tale well told.

 

[paulfish4570]

the millennium series (the girl with the dragon tattoo, the girl who played with fire, the girl who kicked the hornet's nest.)

 

[porktaco]

i can recommend both of those series as well

 

[mfunnell]

I've finished Frank Fukyuama's The Origins of Political Order, which rebases some of his foundational reasoning from The End of History and the Last Man away from his original Hegelian rationale and more towards a scientific and historical understanding. While it's mostly a clearing of the decks in preparation for his next book (which I'm looking forward to) it was interesting to read in and of itself - both for his theses on, well, the origins of political order (which you don't have to buy into to still find worth reading) but also his review of parts of history I'm less than familiar with.

I've just re-read Alan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, because someone sent me a review/reprise of the book at it's 25th Anniversary. It was interesting to see which parts seem to stand up, and which don't, in the light of the past decades. I've also re-read, for entirely different reasons, the wonderful The Puritan Gift by Will & Ken Hopper.

I'm currently reading The End by Ian Kershaw, which I'm enjoying so far but am not yet far enough through to judge.

On lighter notes, I read and enjoyed Peter May's Lewis Man over the weekend. I also read What Remains by Denise Leith (as a bound book, not via Kindle). I was enjoying that one well enough until she dropped an enormous technical clanger on top of a crucial plot-point and lost me. I won't provide a spoiler as I imagine most people without specialist background won't notice.

...Mike

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I read a couple books a week. I'm reading The Moonstone now, as well as a book about British India. I just finished reading one about Modern Spain.

 

[paulfish4570]

the puritan gift looks interesting ...

 

[mfunnell]

the puritan gift looks interesting ...

It is, very. Despite the "March 17, 2009" publication date shown it was written long before the GFC (and first published back then, too - the newer edition seems to be mostly for marketing reasons). My only real quibble with it is (and was, pre-GFC) that they seemed to get too optimistic for too little reason at the end. I guess nobody wants to end a book on a downer.

...Mike

 

[petronius]

Moby Dick, for the x. time, in a new german translation, that blows all the others I read before.

Christopher Hitchens: God is not great

Charles Bukowski: Poems

Bruce Sterling/William Gibson: The Difference Engine
William Gibson: The Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive

 

[mfunnell]

William Gibson: The Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive

That's a good series. Have you read his collection Burning Chrome? It's also good, and the title story fits right in with the Neuromancer sequence.

...Mike

 

[Peter_wrote:]

Moby Dick, for the x. time, in a new german translation, that blows all the others I read before.

would you mind to share, which translation u mean?

from the ones i know, i prefer the translation from alice and hans seiffert so far (aufbau taschenbuch verlag)

 

[petronius]

mfunnel, I own the german edition of burning Chrome and other stories from Gibson. A great read; I admire Gibsons talent to mix our reality with his imagination!

Peter, I bought the recent edition from 2001: Moby Dick
The illustrations increase the pleasure!

 

[paulfish4570]

i have been meaning to read some gibson.

"Call me Ishmael." Zeno, how does one write that in german? it is one of the greatest lead sentences ever written.

 

[ottluuk]

Thanks for reminding about Houellebecq. I read "Extension du domaine de la lutte" (apparently it's called "Whatever" in English, how stupid is that?!) in Estonian translation 4-5 years ago and it made an impression - but I never followed up with another book.

Recently, I started reading Sebald's Austerlitz and I'm enjoying it.

Other current favourites include JA Baker's The Peregrine and the works of Yasunari Kawabata (The Old Capital, The Sound of the Mountain, and Snow Country is up next). Sadly, I'm only able to read fiction in Estonian and English, so for much of the world literature I'm at the mercy of translators. I really should work on my Russian, but who's got the time...

 

[David Hughes]

"Pride and Prejudice" for the nth time. I just love the way the plot twists and turns and the way most of the loose ends are tied up...

Next one will probably be the hitch hikers' guide etc or perhaps the CD and "Tom Jones" in book form.

Regards, David